a challenge. john thune would be the strongest challenge. >> would thune have the ability to attract the so-called tea party or the most conservative and confrontational crowd? or are they waiting for jim demint or rand paul or mike lee -- >> i mean if one of the tea party crowd ran, i don't think they would get very many votes. you know, we talk about them a lot but in the senate g.o.p. you have more mainstream establish republicans than you do tea party people. so, it would be like a heath schuler taking on nancy pelosi after 20910 elections. >> and mcconnell, interestingly who is the pair gone of the republican establishment has

won them over. he made uneasy peace with and paul. it looks to me like mitch mcconnell has wanted to be majority leader since the senate race, ever since then he wanted to be majority leader. now he may never be. things do not look that much better for the republicans two years from now than they do now. he will also face a primary in two years. >> he may or may not. back in 2010 there was a contested primary in kentucky. that caused a bit of a problem for him. people were upset with him. but he has done a lot of work

to hug rand paul so close to him and he let him do about whatever he wants to do on the senate floor. when he says i want to go to the floor and cause a big stink about something, mitch mcconnell says go right ahead. he is such a talented politician. he is so smart. in my opinion i think he has done everything he can do to prevent someone -- even if someone wanted to challenge him from the right he has done as much as he can do to keep them at bay. >> of course the other aspect of leadership transition in congress will be changes on the committees. your handy guy will offer lots of details. we should devote some of it to the question and answer period. i hope that you will not feel

limited in trying to play stump the band and is us complicated questions about obscure subcommittees, but in general the macro narrative about these chairmanships is that the house republicans, way back in 1994 when they came out of the minority for the first time in 40 years, one of their reforms is to impose six-year term limits. they felt the old democratic system in place from the late 1950's through the early 1990's of seniority being paramount and these old white guys taking the gavels in their 50's and hanging on to them until their 70's was a bad idea. they imposed these limits and they have stuck. as a result there will be another generational turnover on the house side. not so much the senate side.

>> what is fortunate point out is that there will be a certain amount of turnover. it is kind of like what happened in california. they just start running for other offices. you know that is one of the reasons the young mayor of los angeles. you know, it does inject a lost talent into positions you would not necessarily think of, but it does create problems because some of the people with seniority expect to be defered to. some of the committees that are not -- let me go through a couple of very important committees where we are not expecting turnover.

paul ryan is not going anywhere. he will be the budget chairman again it sounds like. he will ask for a waiver. it is safe to say that will be granted. the appropriations and hal rogers from kentucky who is about as old bull as you can get. old prince of earmarks and reformed nonearmarkers now is staying put. fred upton the chairman of the energy and commerce committee where a lot of health care and energy policy go through. the committee of jurisdiction there will be staying for another two years. and ways and -- any type of entitlement stuff. dave camp. he is not going anywhere either. where we are go to see significant committees where there will be turnover is the judiciary committee.

he is term limited. he will make a bid for the science committee. he will find himself in competition. ralph hall, the chairman now is term limited. also the transportation and infrastructure committee. there are a few people who happen to have seniority but either have committee assignments or not looked upon as viable. we are passing the baton to a new generation. bill schuster is making a very strong play for the chairmanship of that. that will be just in time for congress to start to think about another reauthorization of the transportation programs, the highway bill, if you will. there is a short-term extension. they will need to revisit that in the 113th congress and

representative shuster will have a strong claim to the gavel of that committee. >> i will take off two more. the homeland security committee. the congressman from long island also term limited. there is a three-way contest to take the gavel there. candace miller, the only woman on the republican side to chair a full committee next year. she is from michigan. that brings me to the other mike rodgers. the house republicans have two guys named mike rodgers that could be committee chairman. the mike rodgers from michigan and the mike rogers from alabama who also wants homeland. and then the third candidate i am forgetting.

mike mccall from texas. former federal prosecutor from texas. we think might be the frontrunner. it will be interesting to see if we say that in here. foreign affairs there will be a contested race. the incumbent chairwoman will step down meaning there will be no automatic women in chairman's roles next year from the outside. chris smith wants the job from new jersey. he has a lot more seniority. but his advocacy for human rights is a negative among some of his colleagues. the last time he got to chair committee was the affairs committee, he went counter to republican orthodoxy and kept advocating for spending more

and more money on veterans programs and they basically kicked him out. so, there are two others. >> i should point it out that one committee that will also have the same chairman but also will be inserting itself in health care fights is the government reform committee. darrel will be there for at least one more term. he has promised robust oversight of the obama administration. >> i am sure he has. and speaking of oversight, isn't that one of the few places on the senate side where there might be a new -- sorry. >> tom carp ser set to take over. leiberman is retiring. the ranking republican is term limited out as we were talking about with the house votes.

senate republicans have the same rule. he has been very serious. he has a very talented group of people working for him on that committee doing investigations and what not. and carper, i actually think, that they will get along pretty well and both will likely be focused on the government affairs part of the committee. not that they will ignore homeland security. i am sure they won't. but i think they have an interest in that area. >> top seats changing hands. >> the budget committee. conrad is retiring. patty murray is up for the seat. we say she is the favorite for it, and i agree. but i do think there is a possibility that she does not

take it. last time i talked to her people they said she hasn't made a decision yet. you have to realize when she took if the d.s.c.c. job back in 2010 to take that job, she basically got him to get her the veterans affairs panel. this has been a pet issue of hers for her entire career. she is so committed to veterans issue that i am a little skeptical about whether or not she would want to give that up and do a thankless job. democrats have not done a budget for about three years. unless there is a real commitment to do a budget in the next year and he really wants to be serious about that i don't know what decision she ends up making. >> she doesn't have too much fun chairing the super k349.

>> she often takes on these thankless jobs. when senator robert byrd was ailing and couldn't go to the floor, patty murray did it. even though she was not the second ranking person. all of these people were in front of her but she went to the floors to manage the bills. then the super committee, she did that. she did the d.s. when they asked her. and budget is also a thankless job. i don't know how much tolerance that she has for that. >> it does prove that if you want something done to find a busy person. >> she is certainly smart enough to do the job. >> she definitely earned the right to say no. >> and she may want to. the next job in line for the job is ron widen. and assuming that he does that

and does not decide to go for budget it would probably be bill nelson from florida who just won re-election. but this is my conspiracy-minded ways going on here. say that ron widen decided he really wanted budget and didn't want energy, guess who would be chairman. mary landrew. a complete nightmare for the democrats. she is innocent line with most of the party on those issues. i had a conversation with a democratic aide where i said you guys will do everything you can to make sure that does not happen. even if patty murray does not take budget, you will make ron widen stay there they said we don't think we will get to that point. they will do everything they can from letting her take that

gavel. >> any more on the republican side or is the republican leadership blanching at the new republican members doing damage to the agenda? i think most chuck pressley now newly installed at the judiciary. >> i think both established there over the past couple of years. same thing with hatch. i don't think they will have any problems, you know, continuing. >> hatch i think suggested when he was running in his highly contested primary this year that he would be less of the loosey-goosey deal cutter than he was for much of his career. he also said he was never running again. >> that is true. but after he won the party convention, which is how they do it in utah.

the primary is sort of secondary. you know he came out and told us back in august at the republican convention that he was committed to tax reform. he wanted to work on it. so it could be interesting. now hatch said i will not run again and he got past that , he could do what he wants to do. he could be the deal maker that he is and wants to be. so, we will see. >> one thing i wanted to talk about before we go is the overall tone in the house. i would not be surprised. even though the republican majority is a little smaller. and some of the people that boehner lost are moderates and the type of people that would want to cut deals. there may be people as the freshman move into leadership positions.

jim langford is making a bid for the policy committee chairmanship, a springboard for a lot of people there seems to be a general calming down among some of the fire breathing. you know there is the potential for mischief on the floor. some of the news reported that the more conservative members of the republican party contemplated now the threshold for bringing down a bill is even smaller that they might not even vote for rules. that potential for mischief. and the people one term in that have now gone through a disappointing election. they have also seen that there are things that they can get done that perhaps they were not able to do in the middle of the debt crisis, making a negotiation. so the tone in the house, i

would not be surprised if it racheted down a tiny bit. people are just with a little bit of experience and a few more gray hairs they might be willing to take the long view on some things. >> yesterday the speaker had a conference call with all of if the members returning and all of the new members and tried to say to them that they needed to, you know, if they wanted to get off to a good start in dealing with the president next year they needed to tamp down some of their most conservative aspirations and team building. they needed to realization that -- i thought it was interesting is that he said they needed to come up with 218 votes for whatever they wanted to do on their own. not to count on the democrats to give them any help. that is a fundamental shift in stated policy from john

boehner's predecessor as speaker whose threshold was that he had to -- any bill that would be passed by the house had to muster in the majority of the majority. a little more than half. it is sort of a window even in the post election period a good feeling where everybody is talking about reaching out to the other side and meeting each other halfway boehner wants his caucus behind him enough so -- >> don't you think though that in haster's case he had more blue dog conservative democrats to draw from. boehner does not. he can't get all of his people, he will have to go farther to the left than haster would have to get the same number of votes. >> the democratic caucus is more uniform in terms of its

politics. there is less separating the most conservative and liberal democrat than they were even four years ago. i think that will be a challenge. certainly the democrats if they chose to wield power in pretty much the only way they can in the minority party, to not cooperate. the number of times that kevin mccarth he to go to the minority whip to say we need 30 democrats or this many to pass the debt ceiling or these short-term appropriations bills. you know the democrats were remarkably amenable to providing cover for the republican majority. if they truly wanted to wield power they would figure out a way to get something out of that. >> i will ask one more question which goes to the same dynamic. we were talk backstage about the results and what the

freshman says where the center lies in this year's senate. >> i think it is interesting that the people when won on tuesday on the democratic side. really ran separate from -- not against, but separate from the party platform. joe donnalley for sure in indiana. these are people who won because they were not -- because they were saying i am an independent voice and i will not be behold tone my party. i think they have an opportunity to have a new center in the senate. it will be mostly made up of democrats unfortunately. but i think it can be watch to

watch all of the people and see how they behave, particularly when it comes to tax reform. that is one place they can be the bridge that gets that done. >> terrific. i think we still have microphone assistance. let's play stump the band or ask what you like about next year's power structure. here we go. >> what do you see the relationship being between the hill and the cabinet agencies? committees are usually working pretty well. congressional relations people at the agency are usually political on the democratic side, but there are good working relationships generally. do you see any major changes or the same battles?

i am on disability and the health committee works well with us. i am wondering if you see any impact? >> do you work in affairs? >> no. i am in a program office. >> i would throw out the notion that i think it is relatively universally agreed on that one of the weaknesses of the white house in the past four years is its dealings with congress. maybe that wasn't the day-to-day programatic interaction between the committees and the agencies but certainly at the top level, you know, the president personally had developed a representation as being disdainful of the care and feeding of congress and that he did not do a very praise-worthy job of dealing with members of

either party. did donte' lot of care feeding of democrats. didn't reach out to republicans. this is what i am hearing as one of their stated goals in their performance review for the second term. >> you know what i think too, and i don't know what your job is, is in earmarks of congress, it wehooves them to have good relationships with the agencies because we need to influence the ways that the money will be spent that does not include putting it in legislation. >> and i think that you are go to see a little bit of a shift again in the house. so much of the house committee's relationships with agencies was hard when it cames to epa regulations.

the investigation of a.t.f. and department of justice got very hot under the collar. but as we enter a new phase of a president's second term, i think everybody starts to calm down a bit. the health care law is going into another phase of implementation. regardless of how much that there might be a desire of some people to relitigate that, they have deadlines to hit. and there is legitimate oversight, not just like a government reform committee. but within the energy and commerce committee on this massive new orientation towards health care that is happening in the country. as that happens in 2014 and 2015, i think you will see a lot hearings where people are literally saying what is the progress on this aspect of the health care law. i think that has an opportunity

to be a little bit less driven and more, ok, supreme court has ruled. president obama has gotten a second term. that does not mean that from the perspective of our own personal feelings that we feel good about the law. but literally there will be legitimate questions about how things are progressing, how the changes are being set up and so forth. that might play out in other aspects of the government as things get more underway in the second term. there is a little bit of cruise control at time in second term administrations. but it does not seem that the white house is going for anything huge along the lines of the health care law. so the more nuts and bolts aspect might take over in some of the house's committees.

>> paul ryan. >> 20 others we don't yet know about. john thune. >> i can only think of republicans. i am thinking if there are any democrats. >> two i know. two senators who were re-elected this week, both of them women. amy cloveshar of minnesota. went to the one in iowa where i believe she echoed sara palin in saying she thought she could see iowa from her house. there is demand for new yorkers running for the democratic nomination for president in 2016 already. as i understand it, i think the order of precedence is if the

secretary of state runs the governor won't. >> i don't know if i just yet see her as presidential material but she has been mentioned as a pick for this cycle. that would allow her to build up a huge donor base. she certainly a very talented politician. she was underestimated when she was first appointed. so, who knows. >> to echo that, if there is talk that the senator with the golden resume, rob portman who has done every other job in washington may think about running for the senate job in two years, he won't become treasure secretary. he didn't become president. he still harbors presidential ambitions. he is only 57.

so if he wants to build up a base he could do worse than do the same thing which is recruiting senate candidates, get them elected. they are beholden to him. life goes on. >> it is worth noting that the one constitutional officer, the vice president joe biden, hasn't ruled it out. great copy for us. >> we got the best indication on that on election day. when he left his polling place a reporter asked him if that is the last time. so i guess that is the last time you will ever get a chance to vote for yourself. he said i don't think so. it was interesting. it was very interesting. >> the "new york times" had an article calling obama's other fiscal cliff foreign policy. one of the biggest shakeups is

on the three of the chair and ranking members being gone. if senator kerry moved positions that would be a clean slate. i am wondering how you think that might affect the president's ability to deal with the top issues, including syria and iran and maybe some of the others that has a nice rubber ducky on your catalog that you are looking at today. >> we appreciate that. it helps to pay our salary. i think bob corker will be interesting as the ranking member on foreign relations. hehe skipped the republican convention this summer to go to the middle east. and he has been doing a lot of traveling. he is super smart about these kinds of things. i think he will try to mold himself a little bit -- not completely, like dick lugar, honestly. he will be against the hawks i

think on a number of occasions. we did a story recently about him and we had john mccain talk about how much -- how much he respected and although they did not always see eye to eye. but i think the foreign relations panel in both chambers, sense, i guess, the 1960's, just as not had as much as an impact on what the president does as it used to. if kerry becomes the secretary of state, i guess you end up taking what he was hoping to do -- and at the administration level. but it reiterates what i am saying, which is you can't do much until you are in the administration about these kinds of things. >> i think you made a good point. if i could go back to bob corker also. he is kind of this fascinating character to me. in some ways he is almost non partisan and the way he deals with a lot of people.

it may be due to his background as mayor of chattanooga. instead of going to the republican national convention in tampa over the summer, he went to the middle east. some people will use these as publicity stunts -- look at me, i am substantive while others are getting drunk. but at the same time, he is a pretty sharp guy. during the dodd-frank debate two congresses ago, he was actually trying to find common ground between democrats and republicans. he has shown a willingness to work with people, to exercise diplomacy within his own conference. he is not always successful. he has shown himself as a person of substance. with kerry, i agree, it if he becomes secretary of state -- which, who knows what will happen, who knows what the president's intentions are.

i am sure there is a recently defeated senate candidate who would love to run for the open seat, scott brown, if kerry were to become secretary of state. it is true the foreign relations and foreign affairs committee have shown a little less influence as far as how far and policy is conducted. >> always good to use this as a reporting and opportunity. we don't know from our book whether it is menendez or boxer who would take the job -- who would it be? >> i suspect it would be menendez. i do not think to >> i suspect it would be menendez. i do not think boxer wants to give up energy and public works. i doubt she would want to do that. i think kerry's chances of becoming secretary of state increased when susan rice kind of flubbed her media response to the attack in benghazi, and

she was already not well liked on the hill among republicans. recently when i saw former senator chuck hagel say nice things about bob kerrey who was re-running in nebraska, i thought, what in it be an interesting choice for the president to make? someone who was a longtime member of the foreign relations committee and who is very smart and diplomatic, which obviously have to be for the job. that is just me speculating. but for what it is worth. >> i have a question. i continue to be just dumbfounded that senator mcconnell made the statement about his number one priority to be to deny obama a second term. not that he would think that, but he would say it.

two questions -- why do you think it did not get even more play by the dems, and secondly, on the hill, among the republicans, were there people saying why in the world did you say that? it seemed like such an unsmart thing to say to me. >> that was a moment when even i was like, i can't believe he said it, too. but as i recall -- and please correct me -- i am pretty sure he said its suit the conservative crowd, either at the heritage foundation or isn't like that and he may have felt -- obviously it was public and not private -- like the 47% remarks from mitt romney -- he may have felt it would not get much press. >> he did say -- and i am not sure whether the interview was before or after the heritage remarks, but he did tell the press it was his priority. why wouldn't he? the upset party. but it is sort of mystifying

that someone who is the consonant operator on capitol hill -- it is hard he spent any time of the capital not to have any respect -- regardless of your political leanings -- for mitch mcconnell because he is just so good at what he does. so intelligent and really does take along a nerve you of things. -- a longer view of things. who knows why -- there was a lot of euphoria in the republican party in 2010, particularly this time two years ago. as i remember, there were magazine covers that were literally painted red. and people say things when they are feeling kind of goosey. >> and mitch mcconnell is so

smart -- maybe he made an impolitic remark, and i don't know. but he is a man who rarely says anything he does not plan far ahead in saying. it could be -- and it is just me speculating, but knowing him i would say it could be also he was trying to put the president on notice that it was not going to be easy. if he wanted to get anything done, he was going to have to -- he wanted to stake out his ground, i guess, is my points. >> the way i always thought of mitch mcconnell -- and i have not spent much time in the scrums, waiting for every word for him to say something, but the way my mother would describe her father, a swedish immigrant, it was as if he is paying for his own words.

that is when you want mcconnell to say something in this big firefight -- any has gone this way of looking straight through you and smiling and moving one. -- on. >> the joke about mcconnell is that half of what he said begins with the phrase -- not to be redundant, but i am not going to comment on that. i can't tell you how many times he said that to me. >> anyone, anyone? >> and question from your end of pennsylvania avenue, hearing and thinking about the cabinet. you talk a little bit about stayed but what are people on the hill talking about changes in other cabinet positions? >> the republicans are saying there ought to be a unity cabinet. and i am sure there will be at least one republican in the next cabinet to replace ray lahood, who is leaving. but i wouldn't expect many more than that.

i also would not expect many of them to come from the hill because those seats are precious to barack obama. just as george bush famously said -- george bush the elder, even though he had great relations with members of congress, having served there, he made a conscious decision not to choose anybody from the hill. >> the parlor game is kind of fascinating in terms of how -- gaming out -- could you take this person from this state and would it be a special election or a governor who appoints, and is of the governor democrat or republican. i am guessing the white house learned of their election a little bit in 2008 when they took so many prominent democratic stars -- and i am thinking of janet napolitano. janet napolitano, they gave for the worst job in the world, homeland security secretary. it is a thankless job.

anything goes wrong, it is your fault. if anything goes right, nobody notices. she is a woman who was enormously successful in my home state, which i know is not easy. coming from arizona. she won two -- one close election and coasted through the second term. she was enormously popular -- she had tough challenges but she is certainly someone who could have been in line to either take on mccain in 2010 or flake in 2012 issue when it. -- if they so wanted. now she is in a position where she might be wanting to move up to the justice department is eric holder retires -- if anybody deserves a break, eric holder would be the first one from the last four years. or the supreme court. who knows what happens there. that is just one example of

where the administration reached into the democrat bench and they raided it -- did not have people to take people like napolitano's place. there are only so many seats you can give up, particularly as we saw this grind out world war i election. two seats in the senate and eight are nine seats in the house. we spent $6 billion in this last election. i would agree to the president might look further into his own associations in the past. it has worked out well in the education apartment with arne duncan, sean donovan at hud, and they look like they are in a for the long haul. >> it will be interesting to see who replaces timothy geithner at treasury. >> trying to escape.

>> he has been trying to escape for a long time. i will be interested to see the type of person the president picks going forward. obviously geithner has caused consternation on the hill and i think senators and both parties will look at the nominee, whoever it may be, very hard. >> obviously, just how these nominations go and how the senate treats them, how much, treats them, will be a good early indicator of what next year is going to be like. because if they start fighting over whether the next night -- nominee for treasury secretary ones -- who knows? says something nice about j.p. morgan, then we are going to be in for a long year. >> you actually took the question away from me. i was going to ask whether you thought there was movement getting appointees confirmed in the senate.

>> i am not sure i understand -- all appointees? >> at our agency and from what i read at others as well, there are people who have been appointed by the president but they have not been confirmed because -- >> i see what you are saying, the confirmation backlog. not everyone, because there's always going to be somebody that some senator or two objects to. but i definitely think that is one place faugh where it is unquestionable that the president -- one place where it is unquestionable the president has a mandate to install who he wants at this point. i think a lot of the backlog in administration posts and the judicial posts is because they were hoping they would not have to have those people. for example, i still wonder what will happen with the consumer finance protection board now.

that electorate has essentially said we one with barack obama again, and therefore you are not rolling back that particular agency. i think you will probably see that actually probably happen in lame duck. i don't think that he will have to wait for some of the appointees for the new congress. i think a lot of them will get cleared quickly. >> federal judges -- there are several federal judges, including famously an appeals court judge to sit on the appeals court in boston. he is from portland and have been backed by both republican senators. he was part of what they call thurmond's rule. >> thurmond-leahy rule. >> angus king, from maine, claiming the party alignment is up for grabs.

his initial request is he would align with whatever party agreed to push for essentially doing away with the current filibuster rules. harry reid made clear he is not willing to go that far. i know still think angus king will align with a democrat. he endorsed obama. >> and he said yesterday he had conversations with him in the past 24 hours. >> and a phone call with bob corker. the point being that this is the kind of thing that i think a lot of freshmen -- king most vocal among them, they will come to the senate and say let us not spend our first months of this silliness of gratuitous filibuster and blocking a holding everything. let's clear out the underbrush. like you are speaking about, who none of us ever heard of.

these are assistant secretaries that one or two senators even care about. >> i think a wrinkle is depending on how much it gets done in a lame duck and how much a new congress has to deal with particularly janet we're february -- if they are still struggling to find a deal on the debt ceiling and find a way to avert this fiscal cliff. if they go right into a problem with appropriations because the current continuing resolution expires in march, it sucks some of the oxygen out of the room. it would be great if they could just get all the homework done right now and go to bed at a reasonable hour, right? but it is not going to happen most likely. and there is going to be a lot of attention focused on these leftover problems, which there was last year and the year before and the year before. i remember, two years ago during the lame-duck when they

made the deal and struck the deal on a tax rates, i thought, oh, no, it looks like we will be dealing -- it means we will be dealing with this right after the election. the more you put that stuff off, the more it piles up and gets more difficult to deal with just the real nuts and bolts part of governing, which is getting the assistance secretary of labor and the regional directors for epa and hhs in their jobs so they can tell -- from a political basis, they can say this is the direction we are taking and what the president has done. it is a problem. it is a potential fix it they are facing. but, who knows, maybe they will give us an early christmas present and wrap up a lot of the business. >> i remember, chuck schumer and i think lamar alexander who are trying to push to this bill through the senate that would reduce the number of appointees

that the senate has to confirm. i do not know if the house will go along with it but it could come back in the 113th. >> on that optimistic note we are adjourned until after lunch break, down the hall to the right -- and we will reconvene in a little bit. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> congress comebacks to the capitol tomorrow for the lame duck session. on the senate side, members will resume consideration of a bill that will make it easier for sports meant to hunt on federal lands. committees for both bodies expect to hear about benghazi this week and able talk about fiscal issues with president

obama. coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. eastern with a house on c-span and the senate on c-span2. it about 10 minutes, we will go live to hear a speech by bono, about social movements. then your reaction to david petraeus' resignation. host: a good morning to you. over the resignation of the cia director, david petraeus, that is where we want to begin with you this morning. we want to hear your thoughts on the abrupt departure of

america's top spy and when congress should have been informed of the probe on the cia director. law enforcement officials did not notify anyone outside the fbi or justice department until last week because the investigation was incomplete and there were initial concerns about possible security breaches.

host: another story from "the washington post" this morning. the headline, "probe of the petraeus investigation." we want to take you to one of those lawmakers now, congressman peter king, he was on "state of the union" this week, expressing concerns over when the fbi, the white house, and members of congress knew about the investigation. [video clip] >> i have questions about the whole matter. how to the fbi have been investigating it for this long? and if the general was involved, to me, if it was, the fbi director had the obligation to tell the head of the council at the earliest date. seems to have been going on for several months, but now it seems the fbi did not realize it

until election day? it just does not add up, you have this kind of investigation, the fbi investigating e-mails, taking four months to find out that the cia director was involved? i have real questions about this. the time line has to be analyzed to see what happened. >> it looks like general petraeus will not be testifying this week at the hearings that we talked about on the september 11 incident in benghazi. here is the headline -- "lawmakers have questions."

host: we're getting your fallout this morning from all the papers. this from christine -- host: below that, denise rights in simply "cover up." finally, there's madeleine, who writes --

host: like i said, we are getting your thoughts this morning. we will go now to ryan, from houston, texas. good morning. caller: good morning, i am really disappointed in general petraeus. the discipline of mines are being taken in by people writing books, which is a travesty for america. too many people in america are involved in infidelity. we tell young people about discipline and the way to do things right, so i think it is a shame. i have a brother who is an airborne rancher and he is not in the army no more. he is still the -- still disciplined. this is a travesty, man. host: thank you for the call.

this from twitter this morning -- host: here is a timeline of the events leading up to david petraeus'investigation last friday. from "usa today," "a report that a woman has been harassed in a series of e-mails --

host: members of congress are still coming to grips with this decision, some of whom appeared on the sunday talk shows. i want to take you to diane feinstein, from the senate intelligence committee, on "fox news sunday." [video clip] >> we had no advance notice. it was like a lightning bolt. i came back to washington on thursday night. friday morning the staff director told me that there were a number of calls in the press about this.

i called david petraeus. as a matter of fact, i had an appointment with him at 3:00 that afternoon. it was canceled. when these questions came up, obviously at took the action myself to try to find out. and then i informed my vice- chairman and i talked to the director twice. this is very hard stuff. host: we are getting your thoughts on the fallout from that announcement. billy, lady lake, florida. caller: good morning. it is a real mixed bag of feelings about things like this. this guy is the head of the cia, and it took us months to find this out? i was trained as a military combat medic, vietnam, and i am gay.

i worked in the surgery street -- suite of the recovery unit. two investigators remove me from that unit. each of them had a hand on my shoulder, one on my arm, parading me out of the hospital because they suspected i was gay. when it comes to things like this, i am sorry the gentleman has had problems, but the government never surprises me. host: thank you for the call from florida this morning. we also want to take you to anita, chapel hill, north carolina. caller: i was listening to your caller before may, he is -- before me, and he is absolutely right. i am muslim, very strict about things, and i think that people have a right to not practice religion here. they have a right to do things

the way they feel comfortable doing it, which is called secular or religious thinking. they have the right in this country not to follow religious law. for him to feel that he needed to resign over a scandal, i do not think that is proper when he does not have to follow religious thinking about sex in this country. host: thank you for the call this morning. here is the editorial from "usa today."

absent a direct work place place, and this is seen as a private matter. he occupied positions where he had access to the highest military intelligence secrets. he had to go. should the fbi have notified the white house or congress sooner about the probe? was an effort to suppress the scandal until after election day? did the timing have anything to do with the diplomatic personnel.

there's no reason why he should not tell them what he knew about the benghazi attacks and hearing this week. >> i went to school one of my friends in california. as wondering if euro credit to anyone in connecticut. host: not sure. what are your thoughts about the general's resignation? caller: let me tell you something, we came here when i was a, we came to a military base. my stepfather served in the first marines. also we went to camp pendleton and he was the commander of that unit for many years. at the veterans day to our

veterans. living and deceased. and active, i should say. about the general, were we all wearing rose colored glasses? i am sure some of his closest friends for making comments or had some kind of reservation about what was happening. the two of them together look very happy in conversation. i imagine that they had many, many other clandestine, you know, appearances together. the thing is, the thing that is hurtful is for the family. and, of course, the military and the government, there are a lot of answers. he will be held to a higher accounting. he has to bring it out. the pentagon will do that as well. the cia, the fbi, the president, all making sure that

this is not swept under the carpet here. john, i do not know. when i saw him, these men are away for a long time. my stepfather was in the military. my first husband had a silver star in vietnam. i know what it is like for men and women to be separated. i feel sorry for holly and her family, but at the same time these men, they are not robots. host: diane, thank you for the call this morning. here is the editorial from "the wall street journal." it notes that "if the leaks are correct, the fbi was investigating him for months."

host: edward, independent line, thank you for calling. caller: thank you for taking my call. i feel the general is an honorable man who made a mistake.

we're all human and we all make errors. most politicians would not do that. that being said, i would like to make a comment about this benghazi thing. republicans have made such a big deal out of it. ronald reagan sent over 200 marines to their death and there was no public outrage. where is the republican outrage? only because of obama do we get this kind of reaction. thank you. host: edward, from miami, florida, this morning. another editorial, from being west, former infantryman.

host: that is from the former assistant secretary of defense. we're taking your calls on this issue. b.j., good morning. caller: good morning. my question is, who is joe kelly? why would brought well be sending her threatening e-mails? -- broadwell be sending her a threat in e-mails?

host: do you think the senate needs to hold a hearing on this? caller: absolutely. i look forward to his testimony under oath this time, rather than giving the cock and bull story from before. it is all because of the video tape. now he cannot be blackmailed by anyone. host: joe kelly is described as a 37-year-old social liaison at the air force base in tampa. host: did he have an affair with her? is that when he was so upset? -- caller: did he have an affair with her? is that why he was so upset? host: do you think that these questions need to be answered by congress? caller: i have no idea. i think the whole thing should

be investigated. host: one other article on this subject that i want to point out, " the midst of people, who may come next at cia"? we have seen a cia director appointed by the president. looking at who will take that job full-time. this story -- host: we go to ben, rock fell, maryland.

caller: good morning. i agree with "usa today." this man, more than anyone else, is supposed to control the role of information. if it had been the transportation secretary, the only question would have been if he to his own car or if they took public transportation. but if you cannot control the flow of personal information about your own life when you are the country's top spy, it

raises a legitimate question. >> bono is raising awareness for hip 8 in africa. -- hiv/aids in africa. [applause] >> good evening. welcome. thank you for being here tonight. sorry if i seem nervous. this is my first time opening for u2. i am a second-tier candidates at the business school here at

georgetown university. thank you. a few years ago when i was going through the process of figuring out what business school and wanted to go to, it was georgetown that continued -- georgetown's commitment to social enterprises that drew me to this program. i'm so proud to now be a member of the global social enterprise initiative. this has really opened up opportunities for me to not on the interact with leaders but also learn from them and learn how to do good business, do them well, and do it in a socially conscious manner. many leaderso have here with us. we also have another of leaders from the social enterprise initiative sitting in the front.

i would like to think our founding partner for coasting tonight on behalf of all of us. but also like to take this opportunity to think the other leaders in this room tonight. you have all enriched our mba experience. especially the executive director of global social enterprise initiatives. i plan to take much of what i learned from the an active member of the initiative and from leaders like bono and carry with me direct my career. they are teaching us important lessons on how to treat economic and social value of doing business. i like to take a moment and

introduce our next speaker, are ioia.on president degi it stems directly from our image as a what tradition to be of service to others. having been on the hilltop in various capacities for 37 years, presidents degioia is committed to creating leaders. we thank him for that year they cannot meet welcome president -- we thank him for that. can you please help me welcome president degioia. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you for that kind introduction and your leadership. proud of the work you

have done among the students and partners in this room. it is my pleasure to welcome all of you to georgetown university for this special evening with bono. we are deeply appreciative for for sharing his insights and leadership in social enterprise. out also like to thank bank of america for hosting this event in partnership with our global social enterprise initiative. the bank has been a supporter and collaborative partner of gsci since becoming a founding partner in 2011. the goal is to prepare current and future leaders to treat both social and economic value in their endeavors. we are working across all sectors, academic, corporate, government, and nonprofit to accomplish this goal.

it also want to thank the atlantic for serving as our media partner. we're honored to have a win at patrick leahy we do have with us patrick leahy, nancy pelosi -- we are honored to have with us patrick leahy, nancy pelosi, the irish ambassador to the united states michael collins. we are truly privileged to have the opportunity to come together for events like this. georgetown is committed to the creation and dissemination of knowledge that contributes to human flourishing and the common good. you may see written on the wall the latin phrase. the first half is the motto of

the jesuits. it means for the greater glory of god. all of our work is for got greater glory. because of our tradition, we are also committed to work for the betterment of humankind. that is the second half of the phrase. is an expression of this mission of our commitment to endeavors for the betterment of humankind. there are a number of individuals whose hard work and dedication made this possible. we are grateful for each for their extraordinary leadership and the support of initiatives like gsci. and also like to thank the distinguished of the practice. the deep commitment to social

enterprise and social change has enriched our community here as long as the lives of countless individuals outside our agape. thank you to the executive director for her leadership and hard work leading up to tonight. i also wish to express my appreciation for a man, the global strategy and market officer at bank of america. for finally, as thank you but to brian moynihan, ceo of bank of america for bringing us together. bank of america serves consumers, small and large businesses, institutional investors. he is one of -- is one of the world's largest financial institutions. under his tenure as ceo, bank of

america is also working to expand. this includes a tenure will clarify dollar trillion goal. it is a privilege and pleasure to welcome you all and to introduce to you the ceo of bank of america, brian moynihan. >> thank you. it has been great to be here. i was at a different institution on the hill on saturday night. i want to thank the entire georgetown community for hosting us tonight. i know when the announcement

came out those were for the four of us and not for mr. bono. i understand this event which has been well saw after by all the students and we are proud to have them come and talk to you about the good works he does. several months ago he made a speech in washington where he talked about the power of partnership. the power of partnership and hunger in africa. the power a partnership that brings everything together to achieve a common goal. that is why we're here tonight. it is a partnership we have with these initiatives. this comes across business and other businesses so we can collaborate. i had the pleasure of spending in our was some of the students.

a full energies -- energize to go back and know they recognize the works that we do. it is a great statement to the work the initiative does. this is built on the idea that this success in global good are not exclusive ideas. they will make you think outside the borders of your day job to try to do more. to think outside yourself and find the issues for you can make a difference. we are very proud to support the initiative here. it aligned with what we do for the company. we believe good business is the right thing to do to make a social responsibility a cornerstone of what we do. we believe the power of connections that bring together

resources and dedicate teams to take on the team to address the challenges in the world. there's an animal base. whether it is something that i am proud of, 1.5 million a put and every year. this shows they're doing the right thing. the global social enterprise speaks to something that is innate in all of us. we do not want to be successful.

we want to have an impact. he has channeled his challenges to end hunger, eliminate extreme aids.ty, wipe out the bes these are pretty ostentatious goals. it must be the irish in him. he co-founded an advocacy for is a show with more than 3 million members. they encouraged debt relief and affect the property fighting for programs sitting lives around the world. we are proud to announce that bank of america will support several georgetown and turns this summer that will provide an opportunity for students to see the power a partnership. thanks to all they have done, many things have happened around

the world. more than 6 million africans have access to lifesaving medicine. finished its fifth also works in partnership with some of the most iconic print in the world. this is a programming is product and we are proud of to help support of the music back in the classrooms and economy that has had difficulty supporting this. bono is an example of what people together can achieve. if there to irish people, one of them can sing. i am the other guy. i certainly cannot partner with

bono in the studio but i can partner to help the lives better round the world. we take this seriously. please welcome me in welcoming bono to the stage. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. he is a very special man. we are thrilled. the band wanted me to say thank you.

every school and ireland will have access to free music lessons if they need. brian has been helping us out with that. thanks to the president has made me feel so welcome year into jt right there who is learning the chords of "bloody, sunday bloody" instead of doing his homework. [applause] bad this is the. . you have it here. u2 has played some nice whole.

i do not know if this is an election or a pulpit. i feel odd. welcome to pop culture studies 101. please take out your notebooks. we're going to discuss why rock stars should never be given the microphone at institutions of higher learning. if you will receive no credit for taking this class. not even street credit. it is too late for that. i will of course be dropping the ought cultural reference to give the impression i know where your generation is out. i do not. i am not sure i am accurate the first existential question might be what am i doing? i could be down having my third

pint. pop culture references. isn't it amazing how repined can make everything seem like the victory bought for five and you know you're about to taste defeat? congratulations are in order not just for turning out in record numbers but for electing an extraordinary man as president. i think you have to say that. you're finally free from the tyranny of negative advertising.

can you imagine what it would be like if we did this for everything all the time? attack ads about television shows, a rival smart phone companies, college admissions. hello. we are georgetown and we approve this message. let me say a few words about some other fine words you may be considering. uva. thomas jefferson, what have they done to you? saratov a school whose among -- syracuse, and o a school whose mascot. duke, school that worships the devil. georgetown, you are in with the other guy oguy.

body knows god is a of -- everybody knows that is a catholic, right? i have been hanging out with politicians more than i should admit. i do not get these assets and i do not understand politics and that form. but there was an attack ad on malaria, 3000 people die every day. that was an attack ad on malaria. i would get that. choose your enemy is carefully. they define me. make sure they are interesting enough. you're going to spend a lot in the company. let's pick a worthwhile enemy. how about all the obstacles to

the selling human potential, not as yours or mine but the words -- world potential. poverty is so extreme it brutalizes, vandalizes, human dignity. poverty so extreme its doubts how far we have travelled and our journey of the quality. the journey that began with force taking on slavery. it will not end until misery and deprivation are in these stocks. but social movements have always been powerful. the subject of my speech tonight is going to point out what is the transfer native element about this moment in this generation of the chance that you have to rid the world of the obscenity of extreme poverty.

wouldn't that be a helluva way to start the 21st century? the history department my disagree with me. i only lost a few weeks and college. i do not believe that the 21st century started in the world 2000. for large parts of the world and started in 2011 with the of people of the arab spring. what happened in egypt was that the traditional model of power, the pyramids, but inverted. the people at the top got up and it and the base had its say. the arab spring is ongoing. it is messy. it is dangerous. what i'm talking about is bigger than egypt or anyplace else. it is a massive shift. it is one of those moments in 100 years the real historians like those at georgetown will

write about this phenomenon. the base of the pyramid is taking more control. institutions that have always governed our lives, and music, are being bypassed answers the tested. people are holding them to account, demanding that they be more open, more responsive, more effective, or else. here in the u.s. to have the tea party hammering big governments. you had occupied due to the jolly bankers of wall street. social movements are competing. we have to help the more of my mental and the day. we are 3.2 million people at last count. we are asking the world to pay

attention to the least among us. there are many things we can do to help them. we will see things are happening in the developing world. think about this particular moment. not just facebook in the heat of the square but the peaceful march across the world mobile phone. across the parched land of the dense rain forests of the congo. technology is transforming things. everything is speeding up. everything is opening up. if i can talk about something i actually know about for a moment, this reminds me of the arrival of punk rock in the mid- 70's. the clash was the very base of the rock-and-roll pyramid.

overnight they gave the finger to be dreadful business that was at the top of the pyramid. it was called progressive rock. epix song, know the lyrics. great reviews. -- epic songs, no good lyrics. great reviews. but the band made no pretense of being better than the audience appeared they were the audience. virtuosity was out. the clash were like a public- service announcement with the cars. -- guitars. they gave u2 the idea that social activism could make for a good social right. i would like to point out none of your professors as ever draw the connection between the arab spring and the clash. [applause] [laughter] little intermission.

ok. sharpen your pencils. i do not need to lecture you about change of the air you breathe. you are in it. i think change is your expectation. what might mean for you when the pyramid and the whole lot else gets turned on its head? what a huge opportunity that affords you if you are willing to seize it. there is not just one lever up power anymore. you have a lot of them in your hands. will we pressed them together at the same time, that is when things really start happening. let me hit the brakes before some of you do.

let it the knowledge that it is brutal out there. it is brutal out there. by there i mean here in a merica. the economy is still in a rough shape. this sounds you hear is a big pair of scissors bearing down on the safety net cuts, foreign aid cuts and all these cuts coming in for a drive over this fiscal cliff. cuts hurt. somebody believes. the aid cut alone would mean that two injured 75,000 people will not get the -- 275, 000 people will not get the treatment they need resulting in 65,000 deaths. broke people. real bleeding. that is why you will hear us

making the campaign that cuts should not cost lives. it should not be a hard case to make but it is right now in hall of congress, the senate. maybe even here. i put it to you. we must not let this economic recession become a moral recession. that would be double cruelty. [applause] you know, it is not just take away your chances here at home. it might therefore take away your generations shot at the preakness -- greatness in the wider world. the generation before you outlawed the idea of the color of your skin deciding whether you could vote.

it challenge that your sex could decide your future. this generation has the chance to challenge the absurdities of where you give deciding whether you live. [applause] the most vivid example of this for me was a clinic in rwanda and in 2003. there were far too skinny men and women. long lines of men and women courageous enough to take hiv/aids test, the nurse is not a diagnosis was a death sentence. there were no other clinics in rwanda. looking into the eyes of hopelessness i was surprised to find no anger, no rage.

just a strange acquiescence not from the versus. the nurses knew that this was not a killer disease in europe or america. they had a very different look in their eyes. fast forward five years. the same clinic, a whole different scenario. nurses beaming with the job satisfaction. these debt accounts have become a bird counts, maternal clinics. not just in the city but the whole country. they understood the united states have deep respect for their lives. this is not the old paternalism. this was partnership. without partnership rwanda would not have managed to get life- saving drugs to 91% of the people who needed them.

good leadership. there are problems in rwanda with the leadership. on this comment they got the strokes provided by the united states. it is a blooming story. we are moved by such moving events. i am probably here because such events. ours is not a soft oakland's. we try to keep our of - -lens. we try to keep our honor code. can you believe the dryness of the term, evident based, excellence. yours truly. i am here to tell you that your heart is not the most important thing. your heart is not going to solve these problems. if your car does not find the right in your head we're not going to get away. it is not charity that fires us.

it is justice. that is what inflames us. justice is a higher standards. people are looking for clean and simple melody lines. just a dollar and you can save a life. just an hour. bollix. it is not true. if you want to turn the world right side up, it is not what to take a minute or an hour a day. it is going to take your whole life. i am going to make a bid for that. that was the brakes. now for the gas. for me where it all started where humanity started.

where are humanity is needed now, africa. you should ask why would you be listening to me talking about after cutbacafrica? this backup has been an extraordinary and the venture to me and privilege. wild, magnificent, magical, sometimes maddening. it is extraordinary. i realized i have been working for nelson mandela and archbishop desmond tutu for most of my life. from anti-apartheid to drop the debt, from the fight against concord to the bite from human rights -- the fight for human rights. the right to live like a human. nelson mandela and archbishop tutu, there is no way to turn them down. particularly to two.

he called in the big guns. on the rare occasion i have tried to turn him down, he is told me that he will personally see to it that i will not get into heaven. it [laughter] i think he might have that kind of pull. even if that were not for them, i think i would have felt people to africa. ireland, maybe? ireland has a very living memory of famine. i am coming out from under colonial chelation -- colonialization. we are all interested in the future and what the world will look like for the kids. people say china is the future.

if you ask the chinese, and they are all headed to africa. the largest diaspora of recent times is from china to africa. by 20,015 it will be twice the size of china. africa is going to be big and young. 60% of africans right now are under 25. all across the continent, people are writing new rules for the game. african civil society, a whole new generation of politicians. they are the catalyst of change. you can see the impact. 14 of the poorest countries which did not benefit from the last decade commodity boom by did get 100 term debt cancellation achieve the following, child mortality nearly halved. school enrollment doubled. qe1 that said that i got that accurate [laughter]

this is not an african tiger. this is a lion. this is a pride of lions. lots of them are roaring. some of them are not. some of them are in a bad mood. looking their wounds. injured. the trace the origins of the blues to mawi. it is amazing. a month after we left al qaeda,

they took over the whole north of mali. it is about the size of france. now the hotel that we stayed in is 8 sharia tribunal and music is now against the law. i mean, if they put you into prison for playing music. you get beaten for playing the blues. you get beaten to death on occasion for playing the blues. mallee is a case study for the whole of that vast sell a fan and savannah. nigeria is an enormous country. in this geography, we get to see

a close what we call the three extremes. it is an unholy trio. extreme poverty, extreme climate, and extreme ideology. it is very dangerous. stronger than any chain and harder to break. some of africa is rising. some of africa is stuck. the question is whether the rising but will pull africa up or whether the other africa will weigh the continent down. which will it be? stakes here are not just about them. imagine for a second this last global recession but without the economic growth of china and india, without hundreds of millions of newly minted middle- class folks who now buy american and european goods. imagine that. think about the last five years.

rocks are preaches capitalism. well. sometimes i hear myself and i cannot believe it. commerce is a real pure that is what you're about. commerce, entrepreneurial capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aids. we know that. we need africa to become an economic powerhouse. it is not just in their interest. it is in our national security interest, too. we want to see the region to fill its potential. q uueque up the drum roll. you can if you like. enter our protagonist.

enter the most powerful force for change on the continent. enter the loudest voice for progress. enter the nerd. [applause] [laughter] yes. .yes. i did say "the nerd." it is the nerds, the elevators that are changing the game not only here in america but even more in places like africa which are more mobile than we are. africa is the second-largest mobile market after asia. this is the era of the afro nerd. what are they up to? they are up ending the pyramid. you know about social media and the role played in the arab spring. i recently met a man who worked

in google. he set up one of the face of groups behind the square and got thrown in jail. he was explaining the role of technology and how it has narrowed the gap between power of the politicians and the power of individuals. according to him, a technology is turbocharge. this is the element i'm telling you about that defines your generation. it works on lots of services. for example, it is definitely true that the biggest killer of them all, bigger than malaria, bigger than the scum of bigger than television -- m-- aids, bigger than tb, the disease that kills the most people is corruption.

we have the vaccine. it is called transparency. it is called daylight. sunlight. information. technology is increasing transparency. there might be some downside to this like the fact that i am on the holidays with my kids and the picture of my sons burned ask turned up on a tabloid. that is true. bottoms up was the headline i think. [laughter] "it should have been "rock bottom." the upside is that someone is up to no good in business or government, it is getting harder for them to hide it. this is true north as low as out of the equator. it is really extraordinary that the two parties who are the most important in a transaction that we called development

assistance, the tumult of born parties give them money. these are the two people that know the least. that is mad. i know rationing is that. this is a tiny fraction of the federal budget, less than 1%. bureaucracy gets in the way. not everyone can see what is happening. the treachery of information is more information. african citizens are holding their companies to account. in uganda there monitoring elections of mobile phones. in kenya they're losing -- using web sites to expose

officials who are in the take. in east africa there's one that literally means "yes we can" in swahili. who knew? these are opening the books on government spending. trance parents he is dragging them. it is even starting to try these. this is big. there is a lot of wealth and national resources. this opened at six can help get that above-ground to benefit the people who live over it. all of this is a start. i'm not even mentioning banking by phone or pricing information for farmers. here is a catch. it is an obvious one. technology does not accomplish this on its own. the cannot duck a cell phone in

the desert and create an oasis. there is now up for that yet. the crucial elements are still human elements. they are determined to stir things up. it is the human element that got this to a moment or an extra million ones will go to school today. they marched for debt cancellation. people and the u.s. were willing to stand up and shout and pay for that. those and other victories put the boots on the ground of everyday activists and every town and city. this is really but what moves the dial. when people get out there, will change happens.

it is a simple equation. outside pressure, and sign movements. the story of one of social enterprise. they put on the marching boots and go buy some bred shit. debra runs the show. the idea that there is a moment of their when myself and bill gates is going to lobby a president or prime minister to try to get their commitments to the poorest of the poor. that politician is hearing it from hundreds of thousands of people who agree with us. it is harder to ignore them and it is to ignore me. as the congressman who thought it looked good on him. he tried to block an important

bill and said he did not think his constituents thought it important. he is bombarded by e-mails and petitions. they were waiting for him when he came out of his church on sunday. he threw his hands in the air. i have no idea the people felt so strongly. that is what we do. then there is the politicians that you do not have to lobby. i just want to stand up. i want to make a major share of debt for leader nancy pelosi and senators pat leahy. all of whom not just great leadership, real personal

commitment. we should not just think them. we should shout their names across the land. i cannot even consider the number of lives that had been transformed in say by these people. it must be millions. people are right because these people exist. these people are heroes. this is civic duty. with the global citizen and mind. george bush is here. i would get matt damon to kiss him on the lips. i would give him a more irish, macho handshake. it is incredible.

president bush's name is in the history books. the greatest health crisis and 600 years. both sides working. i just want to thank bono here. i want to thank bono. [applause] i want to thank bono for stepping away from the microphone. i knew he could not rhyme. i am so glad he can fall back on adding and subtracting. it might be the one thing all of us can agree on.

all of this happened without social media. can you imagine? can you imagine what you can accomplish? that leverage if we're willing to use it. i think we are. i know we are. i know you are. whether you join one or by red or join an ngo that we work along side. we need you. it is the defining struggle. it is trade. it is investment. tell them what they're on domestic resources of the the trip from themselves. to think anyone in africa like skates, and don't think anyone

in ireland likes aids. . issue.ot a right/left it is a right/wrong issue. america has constantly been on the side of what is right. this is about keeping faith with the idea of america. ireland is a great country, but it is not an idea. great britain is a great country, not an idea. that is how we see you around the world, as one of the greatest ideas in human history. right up there with the renaissance, right up there with crop rotation and the beatles white album. the american idea, but the idea that you and me are created equal, and will ensure that an economic recession does not

come and equality recession. the idea that life is not meant to be endured but enjoyed. this country was the first to claw its way out of darkness and put that on paper. these are not just american ideas anymore. there is no copyright on it. you brought them into the world. the family tree has lots of branches. the thing is, the world has a bit of america in it, too. these truths or self-evident in us. those people i have been talking about today, the poor, they are not those people. they are us, they are you. they may be separated by oceans and circumstance, but they dream is to dream, the value what you

value. there is no them, only us. the american anthem is not exceptionalism, it is universalism. there is no them, on the us. i am because we are. there is no them, only us. the jesuits', they know something about this. the largeness of spirit, this expanded since, in light and sense of who is your neighbor. i am not a jesuit. my mother or the protestant and my father a catholic. he was of a whole nother order. but here is what i know. i love reminiscing, but here is .hat i know about the jesuits' he was a soldier, lying on a bed, recovering from his wounds when he has what they call a

conversion of a heart. he saw god's worked and the call to do god's work. not just in the church, but in everything, everywhere. once he knew about that, he could not unknow it. changed him, it forced him out of bed and into the world. that is what i am hopes happenings here -- what i hope happens here, in georgetown. we neutrally except that those children in some far off village, in god's eyes, or even just in your eyes, then your life is forever changed. you see something that you cannot unsee. we have a sense a bit from these words -- a sense of it from these words. i at -- and have his words tattooed on my brain, the man

used it stood in tahrir square at the beginning of the 21st century. we are going to win because we don't understand politics. we don't play their dirty games. we are going to win because we don't have a party political agenda. we are going to win because the tears that come from our eyes actually come from our hearts. we are going to win because we are willing to stand up for our dreams. we are going to win because the power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power. thank you. [applause] thank you very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> thank you so much. kissing george bush on the lips is going to get me fired. >> bono has agreed to take a few questions. please try to hold yourself to one question so that we can get in as many as possible. thank you. >> i am a member of the mcdonough school class of 1999. on behalf of the alumni, thanks for becoming -- thanks for coming this evening. i used to stand on that stage and sing your songs when i was with a group called the phantom's here. i work at an organization that

cares a lot about the same issues that you do, called united way. i have worked with a lot of companies like bank of america and companies that are part of red. my question for you is, what advice do you have for all of us to bring new people into the work, and where should we go to find them? >> i was a big fan of the phantoms. your first two albums were great, and then you sold out. [laughter] as regards the company, let me talk about red. i think we are going to announce that we have 200 billion by this world aids day. the whole thing was getting red

partnered was you had to work for them, you know? if you take car companies are drinks companies, we think that if one becomes red and the other doesn't, people will choose to red one. you used to have an ad, coke adds life. now you can say coke saves lives. it is about values as well as value.

i think that this generation is very smart about their choices. they know that they can play with the stock market, just by what company they support by buying their stuff. that is powerful. we call it a conscious consumerism. if you are greedy, if you are just the company that is just on the attack ads, well, we will buy somewhere else. >> thank you for coming to speak with us tonight. my sister is currently serving in the peace corps in southwestern rwanda and living with three nuns. in the first week she was

serving in southwestern rwanda, the nuns she was living with an herb found a 3-year-old orphan with aids and she has been taking care of him for the last three months. i was just wondering what words you would speak to either the 3- year-old boy named françois or my sister, even words of encouragement, or what would you say to him about his future? >> thanks to the united states and the leadership in this room and in britain, i have to say, you know, and a time of great austerity, david cameron and the conservative government in coalition with the liberal democrats are increasing their aid budget. i would say that the future for cois is in jeopardy,

depending on if we can get other countries to follow the lead of britain and the united states. it is not just enough to say that child live, you want to make sure that john has an education. girls' education is the greatest return on investment. women transform landscapes of poverty quicker than men. it is not just a single -- it is global health, agriculture, making sure farmers can deal with difficult climatic conditions. you've seen what happened around the world this year with the weather. terrifyingly to live in bangladesh, not just in new york. it is complicated.

but i do think, i speak to your generation across the world, francois is going to have a great future. an entrepreneur on every street in rwanda. i remember in ethiopia, the president's said to me, the farmers are the smartest people in our country. i said why is that? he said because if they worked, that would be dead. -- if they were not, that would be dead. the innovation that it has taken africans to survive difficult conditions means that in the marketplace, they are so sharp. if you have known the struggle, you get good at survival.

>> i just want to congratulate you for giving one of the greatest motivational speeches ever. [applause] always also towed to tell you that's ben says hello. how did think we can promote investment and try to promote economic growth and political change in africa? >> it is happening. maybe i could have spent longer on that, but fidel castro school of speechmaking. the key is investment. one of the things we are very pleased with is called millennium challenge account. it is quite an innovative

attitude to aids, linking it with the fight against corruption and linking it with business minded approaches to aids, and therefore leveraging it to create the environment for investment. in the dodd-frank bill, there is an amendment that make select all -- makes it law that the extractive industry, mining, oil, gas, registered on the new york stock exchange, it is law that they have to publish what they paid for those mining rights. it sounds obvious, doesn't it? the truth is that right now, the

american petroleum institute's is suing the sec to try and overthrow that. that is astonishing. i know people and oil companies who are amazing people, and it is very important to energy here. in this case it is not a political issue. europe and america are going to make this outlandish opacity, and if that is not a word, i would like to suggest it to the oxford dictionary. when you publish what you pay, then the civil societies in those regions get to hold the government to account. that is one of the best things

you can do to stimulate business investment. thank you. >> i am stating international development so this is close to my heart. how we develop the perspective and the mindset and incentivize people -- >> i am sorry i missed that. >> the whole question? [laughter] >> how we develop a global citizen? >> there is an amazing website, global citizen. they just put on a concert in central park. we got neil young, the black keys. they are really pushing this idea.

is a jump for human consciousness. go to that website, i recommend it. they do a great job. >> my name is vivian. i just want to say thank you so much for coming here today and speaking so candidly about africa. i am so excited to hear about my continent and what is going on. my question is, maybe just thinking about the continent and how they are seems to be a single story idea of what is going on in africa. this is more a personal question, what kind of advice the have four young africans like myself who have access to world knowledge and opportunities and want to be able to take that back without them condescending or thinking i necessarily know more just because i have gone to

georgetown, and really just thinking about how we can ease back into the african experience without being condescending, if that makes sense. >> yes, it makes a lot of sense. i look forward to meeting you when you are president of libya, which you clearly are going to be. [applause] condescending being the key word, not to condescend. it is very hard. partly what we do is raise the alarm, and we have to, when there is deep injustice and crippling poverty, to raise the alarm, to raise the funds. we've got to be very careful about how we frame it. africa is a continent, it is not a country.

it's so many countries. trying to say this tonight, there are roaring successes and then there are terribly frustrating, awful, intractable conflicts. it is not even like two africas ,, there are 51. i find it quite difficult because when you meet really smart, entrepreneurial africans. you have to be careful because it is just very easy to caricature -- and this is complex. i am not wanting to condescend to you, and say we don't quite have the answer. honestly, i look forward to the

day when you, vivian, will be holding this speech. i serve you, first by a mandela and then tutu. we are all called to serve each other in that sense, in the sense of common decency. africa is a continent we pick on because the real issue we are fighting is reducing poverty. just so happens a lot of it is there. there is such a stark contrast,

but i am absolutely sure you are ramping up, and as regards your own role, i really don't think you need any advice for me. [applause] >> a lot ask -- i would like to ask that everyone keep your seat until the members of the stage party have left, as well as the distinguished guests here and the ushers will release each row, for safety and security reasons. >> can i just say one last thing before we go? my favorite singer is here, sitting right there, with her husband. thank you. [applause]

>> you can see bono again tonight at 9:40 eastern on c- span2, near georgetown university. congress comes back to the capital to more to begin work in a lame-duck session. they will pick up where they left off on a hunting bill that makes it easier for sportsmen to

hunt on federal land. the head of the democratic congressional campaign committee. the new members will take office when the 13th congress gets underway. live coverage of that news conference begins at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. at the same time it 2:00, the house and senate will gavel in. now here's a rundown of the agenda for the lame-duck session. >> there has been a huge amount discussion last night and this morning about mandates, who has mandates and who does not have mandates. when comes to the fiscal cliff, the more important question is who has leverage. i am wondering if the democrats are convinced that they have

leverage because they are going to jump off the fiscal cliff, if it comes to that, and let the tax rates go up. do you think that actually do have as much leverage as they think they have? >> that is a good question. let me back up a second. it's kind of amazing that after all this, that we are back with president obama, a house that has changed a few seats. we have kind of ended up back where we started. the president got reelected, and second, the bush tax cuts are due to expire. they are going away. i think that gives the president an edge. i don't know how the fiscal cliff mess is going to play out. if i had to guess, i think they

will need chicken wire and kleenex to get through the next few weeks. between thanksgiving and christmas shopping, but i don't think it is a coincidence the president mentioned tax reform last night. i think where we are heading is kind of kicking the can down the road for a while. can we get there? i don't know. i think it is tougher now for a lot of reasons, the fiscal issues themselves and the composition of congress, but i think that is where we are headed. tax reform is the only way to

get additional revenue without hiking rates, which i don't think anyone is inclined to do. it is going to be a long process. >> do you agree? >> yes. i have lived through lame ducks, one after the election where democrats won control, and the republicans won it back. we had that lame duck, and then the lame-duck where the democrats came in in 2006, and that was an election mandate. in both instances, and i will let the house members talk about the house, but in both instances, the senate leader, prior to the lame-duck, had a

whole agenda for the lame duck. you cannot get this done before the election, but after the election, and the psychological impact of seeing controlled change as a result of the lame- duck period tom daschle could not get anything done. bill frist, we are wiped out, we will pass a resolution and go home. there is nothing he could do about it. so the question is, what is the psychology of this election going to do to the best laid

plans of harry reid and speaker boehner and the president? i don't think any of whom expected what you just described. the great surprise is that there was no surprise. i don't expect this lame-duck to do very much worthwhile. i think they are going to pass a continuing resolution. they do have the fiscal cliffs that they have to deal with, and there will be a calibration of who gets hurt the most if we allow the economy to go over the cliff. where do we blame? there is a lot of calculation going on right now at leadership

levels in both houses, in both parties, with the white house heaving a huge sigh of relief that the poles were all right, but now we are stuck with this for four more years, and how do we deal with this? i don't think anybody knows how the lame-duck is really going to work, either then there will be a continuing resolution. will it be a kick the can down the road kind of resolution? the question is, how many things will be added to that frame as it is moving through. >> congressman gephardt, as senator bennett just laid out, this can get pretty messy. it could get ugly before it is resolved. doesn't that affect the leverage here for the president?

does he really want to start his second term with an economy that is already fragile and at risk of going into another recession? >> lame-duck sessions are well named. they are always lame, and the use that word for a reason. there are two problems with a lame duck. number one, there is no time. number two, everyone is either angry or elated are just exhausted. it is hard to get people's attention and get the effort that you need from 535 people to come up with some big agreement. i am very skeptical that they can do any big deal. i had to predict, i would say one of two outcomes are the most possible. one is to kick the can down the alley. in other words, and wind sequestration for a short time,

two months, six months, whatever, and the same with the tax code. so that you would suspend getting rid of the tax cut to keep the economy moving in the right direction. the other possibility which is harder but may be possible is a many deal -- mini deal reduces spending such an amount of the sequestration of both the defense and domestic side and find some revenue raisers to pay for that. so it gets much harder because you get into all those questions of what is going to be sequestered and what will not be sequestered at how the weak get some revenue? -- how do we get some revenue?

let me go to your first question -- leverage and mandate. when you're talking about big fiscal issues of the kind we are talking about here, my view is that nobody has a mandate and nobody has leverage. there is nothing good in any of this politically. that is what you have to understand. for my politician standpoint, and member of congress in either party, at the end of the day they do not want to vote for any of the stuff. because it is all that. it is all toxic. it is poison to cut programs or raise taxes. or even to tax reform. let's go back to 1986. we did tax reform and we were purposely being revenue neutral which means we were not going to pick up and more revenue but in the process of broadening the base, you're taking tax breaks away from some people to

give lower tax rates to everybody. that is the unhappy political exercise. there is nothing good in this. this is all that -- all bad. whenever they get down to try to do a big deal, and i hope they do for all the obvious reasons, it is going to take a hike at the patriotism on the part of republicans and democrats to get the necessary votes to get this through because they are going to have to cut spending, cut entitlements, and raise taxes in some ways. and that will be political pain beyond your belief.

they will have to get members in some cases that give up their political career to both -- to vote for this thing. >> congressman, each side thinks they have leverage in john boehner said earlier this week that he sees no need to raise taxes on upper-income households. that would be bad for small businesses and showed no indication of a willingness to compromise. will he need to compromise ultimately on that issue? >> anything that prior to yesterday, i think we should start with a big discount rate. most americans have discounted them totally and that is what politicians must worry about. i believe it is not a typical

but after an election, there is an upsurge of intelligence in washington. whether they collectively behave that way is not obvious. short lived. i think the important thing here is that -- i doubt there will be a deal, the grand bargain and the lame duck. the imperative is such on the economy that there will need to be something, some indication this will be solved to the combined irresolution that commits them on paper that they will resolve it. the the thing that happened is it set it up so you cannot avoid decision making.

without major compositions. this is a good position to get the congress in. you have to get them back into a corner. that is what they manage to do. if we get past tenerife first, the truth is all of this kicks in, the cuts and increases in taxes. what position are you in then? a brand new world where you can at least the back to your friends. now i will be able to restore some stocks -- some tax rate cuts to you. i will restore this expenditures that went off the table, restore tax cut. not as much as i promised you or you wanted but now i am a different -- now i am in a different position. the american people have had it up to here and both parties have to take that into account.

the great thing that happened which was awful for the economy was the fact that every faction lost. none could walk away and tell their followers we did the right thing, america is ready to follow us. america was not ready to fall you then and not in the fall on the basis of that vote. some people will still be where they are but a lot of people will not. the most important thing to remember about elections -- the keep getting this calculation. elections do not only change the people at the office but they also change the minds of people who get reelected. it does not mean they flip flop but i bet a lot of those freshmen republicans came a dented differently.

everybody learns attentive this process. -- learns in this process. certain issues now, and to -- now come into that rubric. that dog won't hunt. the republican congress is not going to have 40 votes on taking money away from -- the opposite kind of thing. that will not happen the same way. >> congressman, you have to imagine there has been a lot of soul-searching at the white house about how to approach this differently from how the white house approached their debt and limit step of -- stand off in 2011. what do you think they will do differently?

>> i hope they will engage more members over a longer amount of time. when george bush wanted to have a budget summoned to the 1990, he kept calling the leaders from congress down and saying we need to have a summit. and we agreed we need to have a summit. he said everything but taxes. i give a speech intended houston when i got nominated. i said read my lips, no new taxes. so we cannot do taxes. and we said then we are not coming. everett has to be on the table. this went on for three or four meetings. finally he said yes, we will put taxes on the table. i get the joke. he headed a press release and walked out of the white house

and he was standing next to me. he was going foot to foot. was really nervous. as it mr. president, what is wrong? he knew the political risk he was taking. leadership is taking on your own side, not the other side. that is what he was doing. i did not think he lost the election but who knows. but that is leadership. dam it went from bad to about six months of negotiating -- then we went from about 6 months of negotiating. we got all the committee chairs, all the ranking member theory would you have to understand is anybody can say we will cut medicare by x. the question is not what you're going to cut it by.

the question is how are you going to change the program to get the savings? you need the committees which to the work it and the congress to the get down to the brass tacks of what does it mean to cut ex program by why? so we went through all of that. we still did not have an agreement. i said to tom foley and george mitchell, we have to get people off campus because the press is saying we hear you're going to cut medicare. we never want to say that. so we took them to enters the air force base for -- andrews air force base for a week, day and night. had the whole cbo group, the omb group, the white house staff and we went over all these things again.

i had to eat a hot fudge sundae every night with bob dole. >> what this sacrifice. >> am i came out on the floor and we argued it for a week on the floor and a loss. -- and we lost. that is how hard this is to do. -- we tweaked it a little less semifinal they got it passed. that was a minor amount of money compared to what they need to do now. it was like child's play. i guess my advice to any white house, any leadership, is you have to deal with 535 people. you cannot make a deal with the 4 leaeders. you need 218 in the house and

60 in the senate. so you have to include all of those members in the intellectual process of what it actually means to do you are doing. so they take ownership. when you watch the deficit commission do is work, tom coburn is a good example. probably when he started the process he was tough for a lot of things but by the end of it, he became a real advocate for doing this for the good of the country. that is where you need to bring enough people to get it done. >> some other pluses in there. the white house obviously has more experience. you have got to have attend the

place that kind of -- to even have a chance at this. now simpson bowles has legs. not that congress is about to adopt those proposals but they have shown a path for a theory they had been widely discussed in elite circles in this country with many people who did not endorse but they kept in the campaign. that have led the -- lead a foundation on which you can build now. you have to do that. that is part of the intellectual groundwork. it gives a basis on which you

can begin to build something. >> senator, in terms of the process, the congressman brings of a good point. during the debt limit saga, there was the talk of bringing everybody together at camp david or seven like that. neither the president are john boehner were enthusiastic about that idea. what happens that were these meetings between the president and -- john boehner. should there be a meeting that basis stakeholders to the table? >> certainly, there should. whether it fits the pattern -- i think the president ought to be having some long conversations with himself as to how he does that. i hope the president has a red

woodward's book, "the price of politics." i teach at the university of utah and i have assigned it to my sister -- i have decided to my students. -- i have assigned it to my students. the book -- not because he is the socialist type that all republicans claim he is. it got to know him in the senate and then never found out about him until after laws informed me. he was not willing, or from his experience base, not capable of

the kind of creative get down, make this thing work. he was still the college professor. let's talk this through. this process does not work that way. he only listens to david axelrod addend of the beginning. i hope he has learned by virtue of this campaign yes, you won, and that is great but if you're going to cover, you have to listen to people who have credentials other than those that you conferred upon them. you have to give those people

in place at the table. i would suggest to him that in addition to the kinds of things that have been talked about, here, it widened the -- a widening base. you ought to have some people outside of congress sitting at the table at the summit. but the people who would say these of the real consequences of what happens if you do not do anything. during the last thing we put together, a report on what would happen at the debt ceiling was not raised. then took it on the hill and

handed it out to members -- key members of the party. it was that it -- not a partisan idea. a lot of people say we had no idea. so he's the president, he has a convenient power that no one else on the planet has. i would say to him, you have to spread the number of opportunities for people to sit at the table and that would say you give them credit beyond those that an elected. >> what lessons the president obama learn from past

presidents. >> it is a good question. point toy, who you apopin some of these positions and administration makes a difference. you have players in these key positions to a bin various -- you could have tarp moment coming up. in the financial crisis, the tarp rescue package failed on this first go round. the stock market continued its

precipitous fall. it is possible u.s. and the like that coming up soon. >> there are a lot of issues on the table. but all the panelists are talking about, at least during lame duck, is a partial solution. is there a substantial risk that some of these things could get done every year. or things do not get them because it is too difficult to do all this in a short period time. >> there is a high probability.

however, that is part of what, if you set it up with the expectation that this is a height-agenda item, a point of no return, you have to get to this in the next four to six months, that is a different proposition. i think that is more like the where we will be. you have to remember this is not a cliff in the sense that in january all of this money is withdrawn from the economy instantly. it is over a year or several years. it does not happen. technically, not a cliff. it is a decision about cliff, as impacts on planning and lives, but there is the opportunity to stretch that out. if you do not do something about amt in the fall, we will have to do something about amt before

people pay their full share of taxes. >> you are exactly right, but the debt ceiling is living up. >> that is right. >> and that is a cliff, and that will get us right back into the same place where we are. >> are there problems try to do this retroactively? let's say they leave right before christmas and go home and say our differences are too great, let's put this to the new year. and they try to do this retroactively. and in the markets are potentially in panic and americans are wondering whether their taxes are right up. art their huge risks to that? >> there are. there are technical problems in extending the tax cuts tree months, six months, because you got withholding tables and a lot of things have gone on. but i think the likelihood is

that, is well said, this thing gets kicked down the alley. i think the markets will put up with it and things will proceed. there is one risk that i think it's worth mentioning here, that i have got a little bit about, which i do not think will happen, but in this case could happen -- to kick the can down the alley or to get a small deal, you have got to at the acquiescence the minority in the senate and the majority in the house. and you are going to hear i think some histrionics' over the next couple of weeks, democrats going let's let the tax cuts away. we need to teach people what we really care about, and we are not going to cut these domestic

programs. and you are going to have some republicans say let's go over the cliff, let's cut all these programs, that people understand what we're facing, and i have heard some of them say we got to tear up the credit card. that is what i came here to do. that is what i want to do. if it looks like that is happening, that money does not all get sucked out of the economy at once, but you could have a couple of really bad days on wall street. you could have the market dropped by 1000, 2000 points. that is what brought connors back to pass tarp, one bad day -- congress back to past tarp, one bad day in the market to bring the back. there is some risk that that could happen, and i think the markets would react badly, i think, and that we would see what happens. >> senator bennett, who was in

the administration that you think will emerge as the key players? matt talked about jack lew, and there is also vice president biden in playing a role in resolving the debt limit standoff, and secretary brightener will be around at least through the lame duck. >> i have nothing really to add on that. you have got it right. biden is the one member of the administration who understands the congress better than anybody else, and he was the go-to guy when we at the last plane got. he called me, i was one of the latest of the docks, but he called me and we discussed and stayed in touch during the whole thing, and basically that was worked out one on one.

biden and mcconnell, to people who know each other, trust each other, a couple grow months -- grown-ups, and they got it done. i do not see this lame duck being that much different. >> there is another member of the administration who has been to all these wars, 1990, and the clinton administration, and that is leon panetta, who is now in defense, but really understands the budget deeply in all parts. so could be another one to really help with this. >> and another member of congress. that is one of the problems that the obama administration has had. to use a term not in a derogatory sense because it came from a democrat, he said the president is just a drive-by senator. stock long enough to pick up his -- stopped long enough to pick up

his paycheck, and then became president. biden was in the senate for 36 years, and they did not have a congressional relations team that had the institutional memory that was needed. now they have been forced to get institutional memory by all the start tissue they have acquired over the last while. >> great. i would like to go over audience questions now. >> thank you so much for a great presentation. i wondered how hurricane sandy and a possible need for feed it to get some embassies supplemental funding would impact the leg up, and if you talk about that and if you think the cr that goes through march will be folded into that the

keep us through the end of the year? >> i will talk about that because i was the incorporator. the preparations process has not only broken down, it has been shut down, -- the appropriations process has not only broken down, it has been struck down. all decisions are made with respect to the cr, which is written in the leader's office. those decisions will not be made in the leading doubt -- the lame duck by majorities of the decide. it will be made by harry reid on the senate side at either agree to or acquiesced in by john boehner on the house side. it is the worst way to legislate an appropriations, to put it all in the hands of one man or two men, in this case, but that is the way it is. i cannot give you any guidance on that. talk to harry reid and see how he feels.

talk to john boehner and see what he would agree to. there will be no logical appropriations process with respect to those issues in the lame duck. >> who would be among the first of the cabinet secretaries that will be asked to lead the administration? >> i will defer to my democratic colleagues. i have seven nominations. >> i did not know what the plan is. usually in most administrations, people kind of offer their resignations en masse and that the president figure out if there is any of them that they've really got to hang onto. my sense is a lot of the fault have already said they